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Council receives request to revisit marijuana moratorium

By Lisa Jager

Brush News-Tribune

Posted:
07/20/2014 07:26:28 PM MDT

The Brush City Council has received a request to revisit its moratorium on the growing and sale of marijuana in Brush City limits.

At the July 14 meeting of the city council, Assistant City Administrator Karen Schminke said the city had received a letter from Nicholas Erker of Colorado Farm Products in Fort Morgan, explaining that Erker wants to start a new business in the former correctional facility at 901 and 718 Industrial Park Road in Brush.

The business would be for the cultivation and retail sale of recreational marijuana within the guidelines of the State of Colorado.

In the letter, Erker requested that the City of Brush revisit its marijuana moratorium and develop regulations to allow this type of business in Brush.

Last fall the Brush City Council approved four ordinances creating a marijuana moratorium, including the growing and selling marijuana within Brush city limits through 2016. Recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado in November of 2012 through Amendment 64.

Schminke said Brush's marijuana moratorium can be revisited at any point. She distributed a questionnaire to council members that asks them to reconsider the ban. Results will be shared at the next council meeting on July 28.

Erker told the council he purchased the correctional facility in March of this year, but didn't buy it with plans to make it into a marijuana production facility. He said he wants to manufacture a product that is legal in Colorado and that would create jobs and increase revenue for Brush.

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According to Erker, the facility could initially generate 31 jobs and substantial tax revenue, which could help build better schools, and that such tax revenue from marijuana sales in the state is only available to communities that participate in the production or sale of marijuana.

Erker said the facility would be protected "by a fence away from the rest of community and that we would want off duty officers there."

In other business, Schminke said the Brush City Planning Commission has a hearing scheduled for Monday, July 21 to review and make recommendations regarding an augmentation pond ordinance and a Castle Rock Construction company subdivision request, both of which the council will review at its next meeting on July 28.

City Administrator Monty Torres said mosquito activity has been a little higher than usual this summer due to all the moisture.

Director of Public Works Dale Colerick shared the city's current strategy to address the mosquito population. He said spraying for mosquitoes occurs each day between 3 a.m. and dawn weather permitting. Spraying is done both within and outside the city limits in wet areas since mosquitoes can travel fairly long distances.

Colerick said pesticides are alternated since mosquitoes can become acclimated to them. Larvicide also is applied to a variety of areas in Brush with standing water.

Colerick encourages residents to also control standing water on their property and that even extremely small amounts of water can be a habitat for mosquitoes.

The Public Works director also said over the next several weeks his department will work to repair potholes that have been popping up throughout Brush and begin addressing how to best clean up the English Feedlot which the city recently purchased.

Assistant Fire Chief Ray Uhrick said the department had received much positive feedback about the July 4th fireworks show, which was the largest show to date put on by the Brush Fire Department. The department is beginning to schedule meetings with various organizations in Brush to educate the public about its ballot issue to raise the sales tax in Brush which would provide funding for fire department equipment.

Uhrick said department members also will go door to door.

The department will host an open house at the fire station on August 28 for the public to view the station and its equipment and learn more about the ballot initiative. The event will begin at 6 p.m. and hamburgers and hot dogs will be served.

Councilor Heath Becker said that during a recent baseball tournament in Brush, many people have asked about building additional baseball fields "and that now would be a good time to do that" with Brush being named an All-America City. Becker suggested that the city might be able to obtain some grant money to build the fields.

Mayor Chuck Schonberger said there are many recreation initiatives currently on the table, including ball fields, a pool and a lot of other options, and that fall would be a good time to get a committee together to discuss them.

Council members also approved an Administrative Policy to replace the city's Open Record Policy approved in 2012. City Clerk Andrea Strand said the policy was necessary due to updates in recent legislation, to address new costs for research on open records and to produce a policy that is easier for both staff and citizens to understand.

The next city council meeting is Monday, July 28, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers.

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